Flaming Love Peace Blog

International Peace Day, September 21

2010-09-19T15:40:00.000-07:00

On this day - September 21 - the world calls for 24 hours of worldwide ceasefire and nonviolence. The UN appointed this day to celebrate peace through resolution 55/282 in the year 2001. It is an important means to raise global awareness of the importance of peace and conflict prevention in order to increase the pressure on policy makers, governments, and international organizations around the world.

Join the Loft's Peace and Social Justice Writer's group as they celebrate International Peace Day with a reading at the opening of the "A Peace of My Mind" exhibit, 6 p.m., at the Midtown Global Market.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=105845156138829&index=1

Writing Peace into Your Life

2010-06-18T10:12:00.000-07:00

I am teaching on Madeline Island this summer at the Madeline Island School of Arts. The class, Writing Peace Into Your Life, runs from August 9-13, 2010. All levels welcome.

At the peaceful setting of Madeline Island we will spend a week exploring many aspects of peace. If you had peace in your life, what would it look like? How can you use your own inner peace to benefit your family, community, and world? The goal of this class is to have students consciously explore the nature of peace through writing. In the process, we can discover deep truths about ourselves and how we relate to the world.

We'll read and discuss writings by Thich Nhat Hanh, Mohandas Gandhi, and others. Guided meditations and walks in the beautiful island setting will return students to their own sense of inner peace. Students will pull from their own craft toolkits of poetry, creative nonfiction, or fiction, at all levels of writing.

As writers-and as caring human beings-we will meet at the crossroads of peace, creativity, and imagination to inspire hope for the future, deepen our connections to ourselves and others, and inspire each other to use our creativity for peace.

For further information and registration, see http://www.madelineartschool.com/.

Small steps -- and a serendipitous encounter -- in journey toward peace in Iraq

2009-10-19T08:28:00.000-07:00

Last week in Minneapolis, I was introducing a small group of emissaries from Najaf, Iraq, to the Open Book Literary Arts Center, just a few blocks from the Mississippi River. Open Book is home to Milkweed Editions, the Minnesota Center for Books Arts, and The Loft Literary Center. The visitors from Najaf were all nicely impressed by the facilities. Then we headed to the basement of the Minnesota Center for Book Arts.

It was there we encountered a member of the Combat Paper Project. Christopher Arendt, a lanky 25-year-old veteran with a stocking cap and tattoos on both arms, was in the middle of a weeklong residency where veterans of war cut their uniforms and pulp them into paper to be used for art projects and writing their stories. Arendt was busily preparing the green paper he made from his uniform to typeset the next page of his story.

"Did you fight in the war against Iraq?" one of the delegation members asked.

"No, I was stationed at Guantanamo," Arendt said. "But I'm a member of the Iraqi Veterans Against the War." The Iraqi group broke into applause. Arendt then explained how he made the paper and ran a page through the press.

"For the first time I feel like my uniform is being put to good use," another veteran said.

A new Sister City relationship
Everyone in the room had made long journeys to reach this moment. The group from Najaf was part of a 14-member delegation in town to celebrate the new Sister City relationship between Minneapolis and Najaf. The visit from Sept. 18 to today is the first official exchange between the two cities.

On July 31, 2009, the Minneapolis City Council passed a resolution by unanimous vote establishing Minneapolis and Najaf as official Sister Cities. A Sister City relationship is a formal agreement for sharing cultural, educational and citizen resources and for building relationships over the long term, both between the two cities and between individuals. The Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project (IARP) and its partner organization in Iraq, the Muslim Peacemaker Teams (MPT), spearheaded the Sister City initiative.

Najaf, about 100 miles south of Baghdad, had seen the focus of much of the U.S. war against Iraq. Many insurgents used the largest cemetery in the world located there as a hideout. As one of the holiest cities for the Shia — and a major pilgrimage stopping place because it is holds the tomb of Alī ibn Abī Tālib, whom the Shia consider the first imam — Najaf also suffered greatly under Saddam Hussein's reign.

These emissaries, 11 men and three women, came to Minneapolis for the sole purpose of fostering long-term relationships between the peoples of the two cities, to start a better relationship with America and make peace. As delegation member Kadhim Al-Mhanawi put it, "We come here so the message of peace can wipe out the message of war."

In addition to spreading a message of peace and reconciliation, the delegation also hopes to make contact with Americans who can help rebuild their city and nation. "You succeeded in bombing us into the Middle Ages," Al-Mhanawi said. Now he wonders what our next step will be. One of the greatest needs right now is the creation of a cancer treatment center in Najaf. There is only one such center in Baghdad, and people have to wait months for treatment after traveling great distances to be seen by a doctor. Cancer is now epidemic in Iraq. Partnerships to train doctors and health-care workers would go a long way to solving many of the current ills that beset everyday citizens of Iraq.

From engineers to public officials
The visitors represent a wide range of vocations: teachers, engineers, professors, city council members and the dean of liberal arts at the University of Kufa. And the women — a university professor, a PhD student and former city council member, and a Najaf Chamber of Commerce member — were clearly on equal footing with the men as they interacted with their Minnesota counterparts.

It was by chance this group encountered Christopher Arendt and the Combat Paper Project. Based at the Green Door Studio in Burlington, Vt., the project provides papermaking workshops worldwide. Its goal is to use art to help individuals reconcile their personal experiences and challenge traditional narratives surrounding service, honor and military culture. (You can read more about the Combat Paper Project here.) The Minnesota Center for Book Arts and the Susan Hensel Gallery were sponsors of the residency that the Najaf delegation happened upon.

Afterwards Christopher said to me, "I hope this story travels all the way to Najaf, where just one person can hear that I am sorry for what we did there."

And the visitors from Iraq hope next that a group of Americans will travel to Najaf in the coming year. Peace takes small steps like these to happen. And moments of serendipity.

(Article first published at MinnPost.com, October 2, 2009.)

Maxine Hong Kingston: The Art of Making Peace

2009-10-19T08:20:00.000-07:00

Maxine Hong Kingston had already written three seminal works* by 1991 when, driving home from her father's funeral, she saw the hills of Berkeley burning, and with them the novel she was working on, The Fourth Book of Peace. She risked her life to save it, but nothing remained except a block of ash.

Faced with the question, "Do I start over?" Hong Kingston said no.

That's the short answer. The long answer is the story of the rest of her life and why she is this year's guest speaker for the English Department's Esther Freier Endowed Lecture in Literature Series. On September 30, Maxine Hong Kingston addresses the University community with a lecture titled, "The Art of Making Peace."

Hong Kingston is revered as one of this country's great living authors. "She is a figurehead for Asian writers in particular, and one of the best known Asian writers today," says Josephine Lee, associate professor in the Department of English and one of the founders of the University's Asian American Studies program. "Her work rose to prominence at a time when interest in ethnic literature and women's literature began to arise, answering what it means to be a writer of color and a woman," Lee says.

Lee notes how Hong Kingston's work is not dated. "People remain impressed by the beauty of her work and how fresh it still is." The themes of Hong Kingston's books have great resonance for the issues of our time: immigration, assimilation, exploitation, racism, transnational cultural identities, how violence structures memory, what it means to be an "American," and what exactly is literature.

Department of English professor and recent department chair Paula Rabinowitz interviewed Hong Kingston early in her career (Michigan Quarterly Review, 1982). "I had been doing research on her work," says Rabinowitz, "and much of her discussion was on genres. Hong Kingston clearly stated that her two books (The Woman Warrior and China Men) were not novels or fiction. It was eye-opening as to how a writer perceives her work compared to a critic." The interview has been reprinted many times and is a keystone in the discussion of Hong Kingston's literary career.

A chapter in The Woman Warrior titled "No Name Woman" is one of the most anthologized pieces of writing in contemporary American literature. "It is one of the texts," says Rabinowitz. "She invented the post-modern memoir."

After the fire
Hong Kingston has a long-standing commitment to peace, beginning in the 1960s with her days at UC Berkeley, where she protested the Vietnam War. After losing her unfinished novel to the Berkeley fire, she started working with veterans of war, forming writing groups to help veterans tell their stories. This work led to the publication in 2006 of Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace.

Hong Kingston has continued to go out on the streets, protesting the wars of this generation. She was arrested twice in 2003, for a protest against the war in Iraq and a Code Pink anti-war demonstration on International Women's Day (March 8).

And she has continued writing. One of her recent books is The Fifth Book of Peace, pulling together ideas from the lost novel (which was to be a sequel of Tripmaster Monkey) and setting them against the story of the fire and stories of growing up during World War II.

"It is important," says Rabinowitz, "to think of people as living writers, living people who are making tremendous contributions to the present."

Maxine Hong Kingston is a true role model for those who wish to live engaged in the present.

Maxine Hong Kingston presented the Esther Freier Endowed Lecture at the Sept. 30, Ted Mann Concert Hall. Free, hosted by the Department of English.

*The ground-breaking memoirs The Woman Warrior, China Men, and the edgy novel Tripmaster Monkey.

(Article originally published in The Brief, University of Minnesota. Photo by Gail K. Evenari.)

The Art of Peace: A Reading Celebrating International Peace Day

2009-09-25T13:02:00.001-07:00

Saturday, September 26, 2009

7:00 - 8:30 pm

The Loft Literary Center
Open Book, 1011 Washington Ave. S., Minneapolis

Free - All are welcome!

The Loft’s Peace and Social Justice Writers Group will present a reading that celebrates peace and offers hope for the future

The Loft’s Peace and Social Justice Writers Group consciously explores the nature of peace, and through our activities aims to renew and maintain a sense of hope for the future. We gather monthly, and by sharing our writing and discussing works by writers who inspire and move us toward action, we endeavor to refine our talents and use our creative craft to promote peace and sustainable justice in our world.

The group meets the fourth Wednesday of the Month (January - October), 6:30-8:30 pm, at Open Book’s “Book Club Room,” third floor.

Come, join us as we gather at the crossroads of peace, creativity, and imagination

Howard Zinn’s Voices of a People’s History : Stories of truth and peace for a new generation

2009-03-18T10:45:00.001-07:00

I will be participating in this great event. Here are the details:

Monday, April 6, 2009 7:00 P.M.

O’Shaughnessy Auditorium
College of St. Catherine
2004 Randolph Avenue, St. Paul

Howard Zinn, Lou Bellamy, Winona LaDuke, Dipankar Mukherjee, Tou Ger Xiong, Isabell Monk O’Connor and many more will give voice to unsung people who have shaped history.

Featuring music and poetry of Jearlyn Steele, and Prudence Johnson. This performance is based on Howard Zinn’s Voices of a People’s History of the United States.

For more information, go to http://www.nonviolentpeaceforce.org/Zinn

January 20, 2009

2009-01-30T12:50:00.000-08:00

by Michael Kiesow Moore

Before this day ushered in by destiny,
how long did we hold our collective breath?
The trees themselves held back their exhale.

Coyotes stopped serenading the moon.
The gay grasshopper put away his fiddle and donned black.
Instead of lullabies, mothers gave their children tears.

The distraught whippoorwill forgot her song.
Actors dropped their lines and sat down in the hushed audience.
Babies emerged from wombs silent, accusing.

Opera houses throughout the lands locked their doors.
A cellist broke a string and never played again.
The flamenco dancer fell out of time, then just fell.

The rock star ambled off the stage and even the radios grew quiet.
If children started to sing, they were told to hush.
On the streets they stopped saying please and thank you.

The perplexed stars asked each other, what happened?
Poets lost their metaphors, some could only write in verbs.
We all know what happened to the blues in New Orleans.

Then on this day ushered in by destiny, a sigh fills the world.
Listen to the collective in and out — mostly out.
We are learning to breathe again.

Soon you will hear the song. Listen.
The whippoorwill is about to sing.

The Human Rays of Hope for Lasting Peace in Gaza

2009-01-18T13:31:00.000-08:00

It has long been my faith that peace anywhere in the world depends on the courageous efforts of average people who want the cycles of violence to end. I do not need to enumerate here the painful stories of how so many civilians – especially children – have been harmed in the latest violence that has taken place in Gaza. Can there be hope for peace in this war-torn region? In my search for an answer, I have been heartened by the numerous efforts that thousands of individuals on all sides of the conflict have been making to build lasting relationships with each other, which are vital to turning these difficult days of blood into days of hope.

Below I note some of the many groups forging these important human bridges of reconciliation, to build permanent structures of peace. These people embody what Martin Luther King, Jr. expressed when he said, “Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies.”

If you know of other efforts we should be aware of, please list them in the Comments.

An Interfaith Declaration for Peace. On Tuesday, January 13, 2009 around 300 members of the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim communities gathered in the Boston Commons for a silent vigil calling for an end to the violence in Gaza. Boston-area religious leaders from all Abrahamic religions jointly wrote a statement calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. This is one of the best frameworks for peace I have seen and the full statement is provided at the end of this article.
http://boston.indymedia.org/feature/display/206691/index.php

All Nation’s Café. Since December 2003, the All Nations Cafe has been a fertile ground for innovative projects which allow people from warring nations to meet each other even at the worst of times. Their motto is “transforming checkpoints into meeting-points. Significantly, the All Nation’s Café is physical place on the road from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, located in a buffer zone between the Israeli Army checkpoint and the Palestinian Authority. The All Nations Café is easily reached by Palestinians from East Jerusalem, Hebron, Bethlehem and the villages and refugee camps that surround them. It is also a safe place for Israelis from Jerusalem, from the Galilee and from the West Bank settlement block of Gush Etzion to come. Internationals reach it from both the Israeli and Palestinian sides. More than a coffee shop, they put on many programs and meet in each other’s homes besides at the café.
http://www.allnationscafe.org/index.php

OneVoice Movement to End the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. The OneVoice Movement is an international mainstream grassroots movement with over 640,000 signatories in roughly equal numbers both in Israel and in Palestine, and 1,800 highly-trained youth leaders. It aims to amplify the voice of the overwhelming but heretofore silent majority of moderates who wish for peace and prosperity, empowering them to demand accountability from elected representatives and work toward a two-state solution guaranteeing an end to occupation and violence, and a viable, independent Palestinian state at peace with Israel.
http://www.onevoicemovement.org/

Pieces for Peace. More than 150 Palestinian and Israeli youth have met over 3 years to create a 330 square feet of mosaic dedicated to a joint vision for peace.
http://www.mideastweb.org/pieces4peace.htm

Soccer for Peace. This is a non-profit organization aiming to unite children of war-torn nations in their shared love of soccer. Though conflict exists in every corner of the world, so too does soccer - the most watched and played sport on earth. United in their love of the game, participants in their programs form organic relationships, implicit in which are the trust and respect necessary for constructive dialogue. Soccer for Peace believes that sport can serve as both a metaphor and vehicle for peace in our time.
http://www.soccerforpeace.com/

Gaza and Israel: An Interfaith Convocation of Prayers for Peace and Conversation. The St. Paul Interfaith Network (SPIN) invites the community to an opportunity for sharing prayers and conversation in response to the current crisis in Israel and Gaza and more generally to the urgent need for an alternative to violence throughout the world.
When: Martin Luther King Day, January 19, 7:00 to 8:30 PM
Where: Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, 700 Snelling Avenue South, St. Paul, MN 55116

Directories of Israeli-Palestinian peace groups:
http://www.mideastweb.org/mewgroups.htm
http://traubman.igc.org/peace2.htm

AN INTERFAITH DECLARATION FOR PEACE

We, members and leaders of the Muslim, Jewish, and Christian communities in Greater Boston - all having deep and symbolic ties to the land and peoples of the Middle East - are anguished by the events unfolding in Israel and Gaza. Recognizing the legitimate needs of all peoples, including all those living in the Middle East , for dignity, peace, safety and security –- regardless of religion, race, or national origin -- we issue this joint statement with the hope and belief that our interfaith voices will be heard clearly, above the din of war.

As guiding principles,

We acknowledge the long, complex, and painful history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
We acknowledge the wide range of deeply-held beliefs, and intensely-felt narratives on all sides
We acknowledge that all sides are capable of assigning blame to others, and asserting justification for their cause
We observe that violence by any side begets more violence, hatred, and retaliation
We deplore any invocation of religion as a justification for violence against others, or the deprivation of the rights of others
We decry any use of inflammatory rhetoric that demonizes the other and is intended, or is likely, to promote hatred and disrespect
We believe the conflict can be resolved only through a political and diplomatic solution and not a military one.

In the face of many competing narratives, we recognize that the overriding common need of the peoples of the region is the prompt implementation of a just and lasting peace. Toward that end, and particularly in response to the current hostilities,

We call upon the United States and the international community immediately to intercede to help reestablish a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, toward the goal of a permanent cessation of hostilities
We call upon Hamas immediately to end all rocket attacks on Israel , and upon Israel immediately to end its military campaign in Gaza
We call for an immediate end to all strikes on civilian centers and citizens, both Israeli and Palestinian
We call for lifting of the blockade on Gaza as to all non-military goods, for an immediate and significant increase in humanitarian aid to address the needs of the people of Gaza , and for all parties involved to join in taking responsibility to address those human needs
We call on all parties involved in the conflict to work sincerely and vigorously toward a just and lasting peace that addresses and promotes the national aspirations of both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples
We call on President-elect Obama to make clear that as President he will urgently assert US leadership to achieve a comprehensive diplomatic resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian and Arab-Israeli conflicts

Through this joint statement we affirm our commitment to engage with one another, even, and especially, during times of great stress. We also affirm our common humanity and our common belief – as Jews, Muslims and Christians - that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must cease, that there is no military or violent solution, that all human life is valued, and that all parties must cooperate to make the peace – a just and lasting peace desperately needed and deserved by all the peoples of the region.

Signed:

Salwa Abd-Allah, Executive Council, Muslim American Society of Boston (MAS Boston ), Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center (ISBCC)
Tariq Ali, President, Harvard Islamic Society
Hossam AlJabri, President, MAS Boston-ISBCC; Trustee, Interreligious Center for Public Life (ICPL)
Rev. Dr. Jim Antal, President, United Church of Christ Mass. Conference
Abdul Cader Asmal, Past President, Islamic Council of New England and Islamic Center of Boston ; Trustee ICPL
Rabbi Al Axelrad, Hillel Director Emeritus, Brandeis University
Diane Balser, Executive Director, Brit Tzedek v’Shalom
Dorothy C. Buck, Ph.D., Director, Badaliya
Rev. Nick Carter, Ph.D., President, Andover Newton Theological School
Dris Djermoun, President, Islamic Center of Boston (Wayland)
Diana L. Eck, Professor, Harvard University
Imam Talal Eid, Islamic Institute of Boston ; Chaplain Brandeis University
Ashraf Elkerm, Board Chairman, Islamic Center of Greater Worcester
Rev. Dr. Terasa G. Cooley, Unitarian Universalist Mass. Bay District Executive
Mercedes S. Evans, Esq., Committee on Contemporary Spiritual & Public Concerns (CSPC Committee) (Civil Rights)
Imam Abdullah Faruuq, Imam, Mosque for the Praising of Allah (Roxbury)
Michael Felsen, President, Boston Workmen's Circle
Lisa Gallatin, Executive Director, Boston Workmen's Circle
Zekeriyya Gemici, President, MIT Muslim Students Association
Rabbi David Gordis
Rabbi Arthur Green, Rector, Rabbinical School, Hebrew College , Newton
Rev. Raymond G. Helmick, S.J., Instructor, Conflict Resolution, Boston College
Arnold Hiatt
Rev. Jack Johnson, Executive Director, MCC
M. Bilal Kaleem, Executive Director, MAS Boston-ISBCC
Anwar Kazmi, Executive Council, MAS Boston-ISBCC
Alexander Kern, Executive Director, Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries
Nabeel Khudairi, Past President, Islamic Council of New England
Idit Klein, Executive Director, Keshet
Margie Klein, Co-Director, Moishe/Kavod House
Mary Lahaj, Muslim Chaplain, Simmons College
Geoffrey Lewis
Imam Taalib Mahdee, Imam, Masjid Al-Quran, ( Dorchester )
Rev. Bert Marshall, Church World Service, New England Director
Jerome D. Maryon, Esq., President, CSPC Committee
Michael J. Moran, Pax Christi Massachusetts
Sister Jane Morrissey, SSJ, Pax Christi Massachusetts
Merrie Najimy, President, American Arab Anti-discrimination Committee, MA
Imam Khalid Nasr, Imam, ICNE-Quincy
Imam Basyouni Nehela, Imam, Islamic Society of Boston
Rashid Noor, President, Islamic Center of New England
Rabbi Sara Paasche-Orlow
Rabbi Barbara Penzner, Temple Hillel B'nai Torah
Rev. Rodney L. Petersen, Ph.D., Executive Director, Boston Theological Institute
Dr Asif Rizvi, President-Elect, Islamic Council of New England
Rabbi Victor Reinstein, Nehar Shalom
Rev. Anne Robertson, Executive Director, Massachusetts Bible Society
Qasim Salimi, President, Boston University Muslim Students Association
Robert M. Sarly, Trustee, ICPL
Rev. Mikel E. Satcher, Ph.D., Pastor, Trinity Baptist Church
Professor Adam Seligman, Boston University
Rabbi Sanford Seltzer, Chair, ICPL
Enid Shapiro, Trustee, ICPL
Rt. Rev. M. Thomas Shaw, SSJE, Episcopal Bishop, Diocese of Massachusetts
Alan Solomont
Rabbi Toba Spitzer, Congregation Dorshei Tzedek
Rev. John K. Stendahl, Pastor, Lutheran Church of the Newtons
Sidney Topol
Rabbi Andrew Vogel, Temple Sinai
Peter D. Weaver, Bishop, United Methodist Church , Boston Area
(Organizational affiliations for identification purposes only)

Gaza and Israel: An Interfaith Convocation of Prayers for Peace and Conversation

2009-01-17T11:16:00.000-08:00

The St. Paul Interfaith Network (SPIN) invites the community to an opportunity for sharing prayers and conversation in response to the current crisis in Israel and Gaza and more generally to the urgent need for an alternative to violence throughout the world.

When: Martin Luther King Day, January 19, 7:00 to 8:30 PM

Where: Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, 700 Snelling Avenue South, St. Paul, MN 55116

What does peace mean when a gun is pointed at you?

2008-12-12T07:31:00.000-08:00

Exactly one year ago, on December 14, 2007, I was shot.

Here are the details. It was a Saturday evening, a week before Christmas. At 5:00 p.m. I walked to my car from a grocery store at Selby and Dale in St. Paul. As I neared the parking lot there was a loud bang and I felt what seemed like an explosion of sharp rocks hitting my legs. I looked across the street and a man in a large SUV was pointing a gun at me. After running back into the store and checking that I wasn’t bleeding (I wasn’t) a store clerk called 911. I took the policeman who arrived to where the shooting occurred. Next to where I had stood, windows of a car had been shot out.

Perhaps more than the image of a gun pointed at me, the blown out windows said, this is real, this really happened. This feeling was confirmed even more starkly when a few days later I received a letter from the police department that began with the words, “You are a victim of a crime.”

I was unable to give the police clear identifying information of either the vehicle or shooter, so there was little the policeman or the squad cars that kept showing up could do.

In the next days my first inclination was to not talk about what happened. After all, when someone asks, “How was your weekend?” unless you’re a drama queen, who wants to say, “Oh fine, except for when I got shot at”?

But I did need to talk about it, and sharing the story gave my friends openings to talk about the things they don’t say when someone asks, “How you doing?” I learned a lot about how violence touches or has touched many people I know.

One of the things I have been meditating on this last year is that an experience like this can give one an opportunity for insight into the kind of conditions all humans feel. In particular, I have thought a lot about what it means to be vulnerable. Is there a more vulnerable position to be in than standing on a sidewalk with a loaded gun pointed at you?

It is our human condition to be vulnerable—vulnerable to acts of random violence (such as the terrible shooting spree in Mumbai), vulnerable to loss, vulnerable to chance catastrophes like the collapse of the 35W bridge, vulnerable to our own dying—it is an ongoing condition we all know but rarely acknowledge. And does not the issue of vulnerability play out on the larger scale of nations? America was always vulnerable to such attacks as those on September 11, and we still are. Instead of admitting our vulnerability, America sought the bully’s role and hammered Afghanistan and Iraq with fists of fire. Our weapons and armies showed the world that we could kill more people than they did, that we are anything but vulnerable. Perhaps only some Americans bought that fantasy. It is my hope that Obama’s election shows how many people did NOT buy that fantasy!

When I told one friend about the incident, her first reaction was “To have something like that happen to someone who teaches peace.” Other reactions told me that what happened to me was most people’s worst nightmare. So what does someone who teaches peace and is committed to nonviolence do with all this?

I strangely have a better appreciation for why decent, kind people buy guns. I know now why many lock their car doors when driving through the city. Maybe I even appreciate better why countries expend so many resources to arm themselves.

But I ask myself this, if I had a gun in that situation, what value would it have had? I could have shot back. And such an act would have violated every value I have that is engrained in each cell of my body. I will not live a life on the ready to shoot back.

I stand on different ground than I did before this incident. It is a more uncertain ground, and I have more questions than answers. Will I feel safe again? Is safety actually an illusion? How are you supposed to respond to violence? What should you do with your fear? What do I do with this insight into vulnerability, and does it have something to do with compassion? And what does peace mean when there is a gun pointed at you?

I have no answers. And maybe not having answers to such questions is one more thing that we all have in common.

Hope Regained

2008-11-10T08:03:00.000-08:00

"And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright - tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes NOT from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope."
Barak Obama, November 4, 2008

Barak Obama’s election as America’s 44th president is truly a grand victory for anyone who cares for peace and social justice. I don’t have to repeat here the great significance of not only an African-American elected president, but the fact that it took white votes to make it happen. November 4 was a day to be proud to be American. When is the last time any of us who have been working for a more just America been able to say such a thing?

At stake was more than just a choice between Obama or McCain. We had before us a choice as to what kind of America we want our country to be. In that regard, this may have been the most important election since Lincoln. The Obama America is one that celebrates diversity, a country whose government works for all its people and not the most wealthy, a country that plays well with others on the world stage where words like “diplomacy” and “cooperation” are not epithets.

McCain’s America would have been an escalation of W.’s narrow vision of a parochial nation, where fear trumps trying to understand the “other,” an Orwellian dystopia of paranoia and control. McCain was adamant about making America an even more powerful superpower (i.e., bully), and his election would have balkanized the world, strengthening the paradigms of “us” vs. “them.” It is an out-dated vision that deserves the death it received.

Will we who seek peace and social justice get everything we hope for in the Obama government? Probably not. No sitting on our laurels for us. But we can take heart that the better vision of America emerged from this election. Our work may not be done, but it will have to be easier than it’s been since Ronald Reagan started our country down the path of never ending war and economic implosion. We have our work ahead of us. The clean up alone may take a generation. But it will be good work. And I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that at long last, I have hope regained.

Ancient Elections

2008-10-18T11:36:00.000-07:00

The run-up to the presidential elections has gotten me thinking about elections in ancient times. Thinking about how democracy, governance, and elections were handled thousands of years ago is a good reminder that how we do things today is not how they were always done, nor do they have to remain the status quo. There are other models; America is not the first society to care about common voices being heard, fairness, and the responsible governance of our resources. May we not be the last.

I’ll start with the obvious ancient society of Athens around 500 BCE. Other Greek city-states set up democracies, but none were as powerful or as stable (or as well-documented) as that of Athens. In the experiment of the Athenian model, the people did not elect representatives to vote on their behalf but they voted on legislation and executive bills in their own right. Participation was by no means open, but the selected participants were constituted with no reference to economic class and they participated on a scale that was truly phenomenal.

When the Ancient Greeks had need of appointing officials—especially decision makers—they used a form of lottery called “sortition” (also known as “allotment”) drawing colored pebbles from a bag.

No candidates. No attack ads. No swift-boaters. At the basis of the Athenian system was the belief that governance was a civil duty, and no man was better or worse for the job than anyone else. (And yes, it was “men” who could vote and hold office. The Ancient Greeks were egalitarian in ways that may even have been beyond us, but not so great in others.) They even had special machines, Kleroterions, to ensure fair drawing of the lots. Hanging chads may have been unique to Florida elections, but corruption goes way back.

In Athens, "Democracy" (literally meaning rule by the people) was in opposition to oligarchy (rule by a few), which was the most common form of governance of the time. And so Athenian Democracy is characterized by being run by the "many" (the ordinary people) who were allotted—by lottery—to the committees which ran government.

The Ancient Greeks practiced another type of election very different from what we do today. It was called “ostracism,” a procedure in which a prominent citizen could be expelled from Athens for ten years. Imagine the rules of TV’s “Survivor” being applied to government. While this practice sometimes expressed popular anger at the victim, ostracism was often used to defuse major confrontations between rival politicians (by removing one of them from the scene), neutralizing someone thought to be a threat to the state, or exiling a potential tyrant. There was no charge or defense, and exile was not in fact a penalty; it was simply a command from the Athenian people that one of their number be gone for ten years.

Each year the Athenians were asked in the assembly whether they wished to hold an ostracism. If they voted "yes", then an ostracism would be held two months later. In a roped-off area of the agora, citizens scratched the name of a citizen they wished to expel on “ostraka” or potshards (“ostraka” which is where the term is derived from) and deposited them in urns. If a minimum of six thousand votes were reached, then the ostracism took place: the officials sorted the names into separate piles, and the person receiving the highest number of votes was exiled for ten years.

The person nominated had ten days to leave the city—if he attempted to return, the penalty was death. The property of the man banished was not confiscated and there was no loss of status. After the ten years he was allowed to return without stigma. It was also possible for the assembly to recall an ostracized person ahead of time, especially during a crisis.

Even public heroes could be ostracized. One of the most dramatic ostracisms to take place was when Themosticles was voted into exile. Themosticles saved Athens from destruction by the Persians, devising the naval strategy that won the war against what was then the world’s greatest super power. His big problem happened after the war when he strengthened Athenian walls and the Spartans feared the growing dominance of Athens in Grecian affairs. It is likely that Spartan factions in Athens led to his ostracism. On the other hand, his sense of self-importance may have led non-Spartans to fear that Themosticles had the makings of a dictator. So he was voted off the city and he never returned.

What if instead of voting for a president we instead voted someone “off” the country? It might sound like a silly idea at first, but knowing that at any moment you could be voted out so dramatically, you would have to make sure that you were taking care of the common good, that your actions were transparent, that you sought neither fame, power, nor financial gain. It would be to the people you were most accountable. It might not be such a bad thing.

The Ancient Greeks were not the first to practice ideals of egalitarianism and wise governance for the common good. One of my favorite stories is of the ancient Mesopotamian city Uruk. Uruk was situated east of the Euphrates and its heyday lasted 800 years between 3200 and 4000 BCE. It is perhaps best known as the capital city where much of the action of the epic poem “Gilgamesh” took place. What I love about Uruk’s governmental structure is that the people of Uruk believed that being a leader was a “civil service.” No name of any leader of Uruk was ever recorded. Displays of wealth were even forbidden. Thus none of the leaders of what was at that time the largest city in the world are remembered for posterity. Their governance has remained anonymous.

Would that our society had such an ideal. If no one is going to remember your name throughout history, does that not change how you will relate to your job of governance? Knowing that your work will remain anonymous, will you not invest your energy into doing good work for your people as their “civil servant” instead of starting wars and removing heads of other states so that you could be remembered by abstract posterity as some kind of hero?

Lotteries, exile, faceless governance. Might it not be time to bring back some of the ancient ways of elections and governing? I’ll admit that sortition and ostracism may not be in the mix anytime soon, but I sure would like to see the ideals behind Uruk’s governance enter our vernacular. Athenian Democracy was a short-lived experiment that ended with terrible tyrannies after the death of Pericles, while Uruk lasted much longer. In the last 8 years with “W” as president and atrocities such as government sanctioned wire-tapping and the death of Habeas Corpus (just to name a couple), the great American experiment has been flirting with tyranny. I pray that we turn a new road, and use as our model the idea that governance is a civil duty dedicated to nothing more than the common good.

Our Journey Home: Finding Peace Through Creativity

2008-09-10T16:58:00.000-07:00

A few years ago I set myself a challenge. I had once taught a class called “Writing Peace into the World” and I decided that I would not teach this class again until I felt hope for peace in the world.

Anyone can find evidence for despair. I won’t enumerate here all the reasons we can become cynical about the future. It could be a long list.

So where do we look to make a different kind of list, the evidence of good will and harmonious future?

I found the answers I sought in a book. This particular book was a treasure trove, The Future of Peace: On the Front Lines with the World’s Great Peacemakers by Scott Hunt. This is a collection of interviews with the big names in peacemaking including the Dalai Lama, Aung San Suu Kyi, and even Jane Goodall.

What fascinated me was how all the great peacemakers clearly defined peace as more than the absence of violence. Suu Kyi talked about how peace is the freedom from fear. Not surprisingly the Dalai Lama said that “Peace is actually, I believe, an expression of compassion, a sense of caring.”

More importantly the overwhelming theme throughout the interviews was how we should endeavor to develop a peaceful mind, that doing so is more important than anything else we can do. We should not seek to change the world, but do our inner work. The great Vietnamese Buddhist monk and peacemaker Thich Quang Do said,

“The human heart contains a good seed. It is concealed deep within the heart. It is always there. When this concealed seed is realized, the whole world will be better. When you have peace in your mind, there will be peace in the world.”

Inspired by the powerful words and stories I read, I felt I could teach my workshop that uses writing to learn more about peace. It was not so much that I found the answer to world peace, but my heart had been opened to the possibility for hope.

An interesting sequence of events then followed. After teaching this workshop students asked that they continue to meet. This led to the formation of the Loft’s Peace and Social Justice Open Group and we continue to meet monthly to share our writing and discuss works by inspiring writers so that we can use our creative craft to promote peace and sustainable justice.

The philosopher Epictetus once said that one can immediately become a better person by finding and emulating worthy role models. Initially my role models began with people like the Dalai Lama. That has changed these last years thanks to the people I’ve met in the writing group and through our festival we organize called The Art of Peace. My new role models are every day people who, through their actions, give evidence for a hopeful future and include:

• Karla Gergen, a writing group member who has now left the US to teach young girls in Honduras for the next couple years.
• Sami Rasouli, an Iraqi-American from Minneapolis who is right now in Iraq promoting peace through his organization Muslim Peacemaker Teams.
• The people who form Nonviolent Peaceforce—headquartered in Minneapolis—which is an unarmed, international peacekeeping force composed of trained civilians who are saving lives in violent conflict areas around the world every day.
• Local writer Carol Pearce Bjorlie who through her writing, music, and teaching inspires students and writers to, as she exhorted in the May-June issue of A View from the Loft, “remove the mute” in behalf of peace.

You can find similar inspiration at the Loft on September 21, the International Day of Peace, when the Peace and Social Justice group presents its second Art of Peace festival. This year’s theme is “Our Journey Home: Finding Peace through Creativity.” The festival will present speakers Sami Rasouli and Carol Pearce Bjorlie, many workshops including one on nonviolent peacekeeping by members of the Nonviolent Peaceforce, a labyrinth you can walk on, performances and readings including The Voices for Peace chorus,Pangea World Theater, poet Todd Boss, and a rare art show bringing together American and Iraqi artists, all of which will demonstrate how to use your creativity in the service of peace.

Regularly updated information can be found at http://www.michaelkiesowmoore.com/artofpeace.html.

This article was printed in the September-October, 2008 issue of A View from the Loft.

A Country of Flaming Love

2008-09-04T16:08:00.000-07:00

I don’t know if the timing is fitting or ironic that I begin this Peace Blog in the midst of the occupation of the Republican National Convention in my backyard of downtown Saint Paul. As I write these words helicopters are flying over head and I hear sirens nonstop. The streets are filling with National Guard troops and riot-clad police. The club and machine gun totting police outnumber the residents of my city.

I could fill this blog with reportage of the MANY incidents in which the police have arrested and brutalized innocent people. I even witnessed tear gas and flash bombs set off by police to move a befuddled and confused crowd of people who did nothing illegal. Others have been doing a great job documenting how Saint Paul has been turned into a brutal police state and I recommend looking at this reporting at http://www.minnesotaindependent.com/.

I instead focus this first blog on the image here – a peace pole sitting before rows of rusted fence that the RNC erected. To me nothing symbolizes the America that Bush/Cheney have created in their image than this – the lonely call that peace prevail on the earth surrounded by barricades of wire. The America our government wants is one of fences, an America that keeps people out, an America that deploys the show of force rather than the tools of diplomacy.

In the course of this week I have watched police fill my streets, harass anyone they deem a potential criminal (and they use an arithmetic of their own making), and use tear gas as their main method of crowd control. Sure, there were break away demonstrators who sought to create havoc. Some broke a Macy's window and others threatened even worse, thus stealing the message of peace that so many others expressed. But of the thousands of protesters who marched for peace, these splinter groups only represented a handful of what had been a generally well meaning, peace centered presence of people of good will.

One of the most chilling stories I heard was of a 17-year-old pacifist who because he set a backpack on the ground to look for a lighter for someone who asked for a light was wrestled to the ground by five officers, and according to his mother, were “repeatedly kicking, beating, dragging and hitting him.” The boy was left bloody and his back covered with the imprints of police boots. The full story can be found at Minnesota Independent.

The many images of long phalanxes of club wielding police and stories of them overreacting and hurting innocent people beg the question, if we do not want a police state (ostensibly the free wheeling police and the curtailment of our once protected rights are all for the purpose of “keeping us safe from terrorists”), then what kind of country is it that we yearn for and what would it look like? I see this peace blog as an ongoing meditation that will seek an answer to that question. And so I begin with a radical vision.

A.J. Muste in “Getting Rid of War” makes an argument for unilateral disarmament, saying that “the enemy is not the other nation, but war.” A unilaterally disarmed America is a bold image. It is an idea that says we will take shelter in the conviction that a national commitment to peace will protect us and not arms.

Muste anticipates what questions will arise with this idea, namely, What will stop any country from running over us? One answer he gives is that, “It is our contention that, whatever the provocation or the danger, there is no justification in heaven or on earth for our arms indiscriminately wiping out any other people, men, women, the aged and the babies. If we have no words harsh enough for those who would do such a thing to us, what are we if we do it to others?”

Muste proposes a United States which dares to “risk sanity” and establish a “true, racially integrated democracy here at home.” Such a country would be an example to others.

Ralph Waldo Emerson in his essay “War” echoes a similar answer to the fate of a nation that chooses not to declare war or carry arms - a “nation of lovers” whose motivation is that of “flaming love”: “Whenever we see the doctrine of peace embraced by a nation, we may be assured it will not be one that invites injury; but one, on the contrary, which has a friend in the bottom of the heart of every man, even of the violent and the base; one against which no weapon can prosper; one which is looked upon as the asylum of the human race and has the tears and the blessings of mankind.”

What country do you want? To quote Emerson one more time, Shall it be war, or shall it be peace?